TV Statistician

I’ve been watching the West Wing a lot recently. It kept coming up in conversations with friends, but I didn’t pay much attention to it when it was on the air originally. I decided to go ahead and give it a try, and I’ve been watching it more than I’d like to admit over the last few months.

Life as the father of a one-year old makes it tough to devote hours and hours to keeping up with the ever-growing list of quality television shows on the air. With that being said, I still find myself with plenty of time to consume music and podcasts. And with most music, I don’t mind Evelyn listening.

I’m often conflicted about Hannibal. So much about the show pulls me in, but then there are those moments … well, let’s just say I’m not a fan of knives. Or surgery. Or needles. You get the point.

This episode was a clear 10, and it could even be a candidate for my favorite from all seven seasons. Leslie and Ron are the two strongest characters on the show. When you put them against each other and lock them in a room overnight, that’s a good recipe for a strong episode. This story results in some of best emotional moments of the series, plus it gives some of the biggest laughs.

So, now to Better Call Saul. The series premiere Uno had some similarities to Breaking Bad’s pilot episode. It centers on a story of a middle aged man with an unsatisfying career. He has family with unique needs, and he feels that he has few options left.

Four years ago I started a blog about television and my unique viewing habits. The blog settings weren’t set to private – it was out there for the world to see – but I didn’t tell anyone. It existed only for my own reading pleasure. Today I’m making a pledge to actually start posting regularly and maybe turn this into something somebody out there enjoys.

I changed up the total rating formula to try to more accurately portray what shows I consider my “favorites.” The total rating number is supposed to measure where I would rank a show in my all-time favorites, and the average episode rating is a pure measure of quality without taking into account quantity. For example, I really enjoyed Eastbound and Down‘s first season (9.67 average episode rating), but because of the small number of episodes I’ve seen so far I wouldn’t consider it one of my all-time favorites. On the other hand, South Park‘s episode average is much lower (7.78), but I do consider it a...

You can always count on King of the Hill for some good-to-great laughs.  Some good ones in this episode, including Dale’s explanation of why metal detectors aren’t a good idea.

I wouldn’t really consider Chuck one of my favorite shows – it’s pretty uneven – but when the highs hit they’re pretty high. This episode is a pretty good example of the highs this show can hit.

I spent about half an hour trying to think of a name for this blog. I first started with The Simpsons, the show that started this growing fascination with television for me. My senior quote in high school was “Any key? Where’s the ‘any’ key?” That didn’t seem to fit. I then thought of Lost, the show that really made me a believer in television as a medium for some of the most creative and engrossing storytelling. Nothing there really seemed title-worthy to me, at least not right away.